U.S. Pat. No. 5,791,359 granted to the same inventors of this application disclosed a multiple-fold automatic umbrella having lightening umbrella structure, which however requires an elongate control lever (52) to be pivotally mounted in the grip (12) by a pivot (521), thereby causing a complex and inconvenient assembly of the elements of the control means (5). Meanwhile, the link (41) of the drag means (4) should be secured in a link holder (42) by a pin (422) and the link holder (42) is further secured in a lower portion of the lower tube (11) of the central shaft (1), thereby causing inconvenience and complexity for assembling the elements of the umbrella.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,682,616 to Schultes disclosed an umbrella with a mechanism for locking and releasing a slider including a bolt (18) slidably carried in the handle (1) and a release button (15) secured to the bolt (18). As shown in FIG. 7 of the Schultes patent (,616), the handle (1) should be separated into a bottom part and a top part, with the two detachable parts provided to define the slide channel (1a") and to mount the bolt (18) and the spring (17) therebetween to be easily accessible. However, such two parts when combined for assembling the complete handle (1) will form a "boundary line" at their connection edges, thereby influencing an esthetic decorative effect for the umbrella. The hook portion of the top part engageable and combinable with the groove of the bottom part of the handle should each be made by plastic material (dotted line shown in FIG. 7 of Schultes patent), not suitably made by wooden material. It may therefore be difficult to make the handle (1) of the umbrella by wooden material and the handle as made of plastic material may decrease its commercial value and ornamental effect in consideration of the noble feeling as enabled by wooden material.
The present inventors have found the drawbacks of the conventional multiple-fold automatic umbrella, and invented the present lightening multiple-fold automatic umbrella.